New Dark Souls III Gameplay Footage Shows Off A Brutal Boss Fight

A new video was cut from a Ustream that From Software held for Dark Souls III, the upcoming hack-and-slash, action-RPG for the Xbox One, PS4 and PC. The video features some of the new combat mechanics and boss battles that players will encounter throughout their adventures.

DualShockers managed to get the relevant snippets from the live-stream and linked to a 14 minute video where From Software's Yasunori Ogura walked gamers through the features and mechanics of Dark Souls III's gameplay. You can check it out below.

One of the things they demonstrate early on in the clip is the ability to parry and counter-attack using the Battle Arts. This new fighting mechanism is being introduced into Dark Souls III to give each of the weapon styles a unique feel and open up more combat possibilities and opportunities for players to explore as they tactically approach some enemies who may be giving them a tough time.

We can see that the stance for the player-character can be altered on the fly, allowing players to switch stances quickly and efficiently to adjust to the ever-changing ebb and flow of combat.

Despite wielding a shield throughout the video, Ogura opts to show gamers how to battle and counter enemies by just relying on the sword parries and quick strikes. Later in the video we see him exercising evasive maneuvers to roll, side-step, dodge and feint out of the way. Essentially the demonstration shows that players will have plenty of options at their disposal in how they approach enemies and how they get out of the way of attacks.

Interestingly enough we get to see the mace in action for once. It's a weapon rarely showcased in the promotional trailers for Dark Souls III, given that majority of the time we only see swords and spears in action. Once we also got to see some of the slow but devastating hammer attacks.

Unfortunately in the video the mace is only used very briefly before going back to the sword and shield combo when facing off against an icy, quadruped creature. On the upside the mace is switched back to later in the video when taking out some of the lower tier enemies.

The video wraps up with a boss fight against a giant knight who wields a halberd. What's interesting about the start of the fight is that the player-character grabs the sword out of the knight to start the, it's a little like the Sword in the Stone except the stone fought back.

In typical Dark Souls fashion the fight with the knight does not go over so well the first time given that the knight is just too fast and too hard. On the second time around things go a lot better and we even get to see the boss knight, the Heir of Fire, take on his final form. It's great stuff for fans of hack-and-slash games.

Dark Souls III is expected to arrive in North America for the Xbox One, PS4 and PC on April 12th.